Description & Requirements Who you'll work with As a member of Bain's Technology Solutions Group (TSG), The Vice President, Enterprise Data Architecture is accountable for the vision, strategy, and results of the firm's enterprise data architecture function. You will report to the EVP, TSG Data & Technology and serve as a member of the senior data and technology leadership team, helping shape the firm's broader data strategy. You will partner closely with senior business and technology leaders across functions, departments, and regions, and with our data governance, information security, privacy, and legal colleagues. You will set technical direction for internal engineering teams and external delivery partners through the senior leaders who guide them, and represent the firm's data architecture direction with strategic technology partners and external peers.
Where you'll fit within the team We are building a single, governed data platform on Databricks that spans every kind of data we hold - structured and unstructured alike - to serve as the data fabric for the agentic AI platform we are building alongside it, and as the authoritative data and knowledge platform for the firm. The Vice President, Data Architecture will own the target-state architecture and the roadmap to reach it, making the architecture trade-offs and recommending the investment priorities needed to align that roadmap with the firm's goals. The role sets the multi-year direction for the firm's enterprise data platforms, models, and related capabilities, and ensures they provide a scalable, secure, and governed foundation for the trusted use of data, analytics, and AI across the firm. The Vice President leads the data architecture function - including the Data Modeling Center of Excellence - through a team of senior leaders and architects, builds the leadership bench and succession for the function, and serves as a senior advisor and thought partner on the firm's data strategy.
What you'll do Architecture strategy and technical leadership - Set the vision and multi-year roadmap for the firm's enterprise data architecture, platforms, and capabilities, aligned with business strategy and the firm's data and AI ambitions
- Own the target-state data architecture and the architecture principles, standards, and technology direction that keep enterprise data capabilities scalable, secure, governed, and maintainable
- Make and defend the major architecture and platform decisions, balancing speed, cost, risk, and long-term flexibility across departments and regions, and recommend the investment priorities that follow; create strong reference architectures to guide the implementation of various initiatives
- Provide senior technical leadership on the most complex architecture questions, and set technical direction for internal engineering teams and external delivery partners through the senior leaders who guide them
- Partner with data governance, security, privacy, legal, and technology leaders to ensure data quality, governance, security, and control requirements are built into the architecture and applied consistently
- Build alignment among senior leaders and drive adoption of enterprise data architecture and platform standards across functions, departments, and regions, resolving cross-department dependencies and competing priorities, promoting reuse and reducing fragmentation
- Identify high-value opportunities to apply data and AI capabilities, and lead the integration of AI and agentic use cases into the enterprise data foundation
- Serve as a senior advisor and thought partner to business and technology leaders on architecture decisions, strategic trade-offs, and emerging data and AI capabilities, and help shape the firm's broader data strategy
- Own the senior relationship with strategic data platform and technology partners, and lead regular benchmarking of the firm's data architecture against external practices and peers
Data Modeling, Ontology and Architecture - Own the Data Modeling Center of Excellence and the enterprise standards and practices for data modeling, ontology, and semantic layer
- Ensure standards support consistent, governed, and reusable data products and models across business domains
- Partner with senior business and data owners to define data domains, ownership, and authoritative sources across structured and unstructured information
- Set the quality bar for architecture and modeling work, and continually scale, automate, and improve how standards are applied
- Create and implement reference architectures for Databricks, Glean, Palantir, and other platforms to showcase the firm as client zero to our clients
People and Organizational leadership - Lead the data architecture function through its senior leaders and architects, and set the organization structure, operating model, and capacity plan in line with evolving business needs
- Coach and develop senior technical leaders, build succession for the function, and develop the next generation of leaders for the firm, including mentoring beyond the direct team
- Lead performance management, professional development, and recruiting of senior technical talent
- Cultivate an inclusive, psychologically safe, and collaborative culture across a globally distributed team, and sponsor a culture of technology and AI experimentation consistent with the firm's responsible use policies
- Work with peer leaders across Data & Technology and other functions to align the function's priorities, resourcing, and ways of working with broader firm initiatives
About you - 10-15+ years of experience in enterprise data architecture and engineering, including leading architecture strategy for complex, large-scale data environments across multiple business domains and data platforms
- Track record of defining and delivering multi-year enterprise architecture roadmaps and scalable, secure, and governed data platforms using modern cloud technologies, with demonstrated business impact
- Deep experience in data modeling and related architecture disciplines, including establishing standards across complex data domains and supporting analytics and AI workloads on structured and unstructured data
- Experience leading architecture and/or data modeling organizations through senior leaders, and developing senior technical talent and succession
- Experience directing distributed engineering teams and managing strategic relationships with external technology partners and vendors
- Demonstrated experience advising and influencing senior stakeholders, resolving complex cross-organizational trade-offs, and driving adoption of enterprise architecture standards at scale
- Visionary technology strategist with the ability to translate business strategy into a multi-year enterprise data architecture vision, roadmap, and investment priorities
- Expert knowledge of enterprise data architecture, data modeling, and modern data platform concepts, with command of the related engineering, governance, security, and AI disciplines and how they interrelate
- Persuasive influencer with senior leaders and stakeholders across functions, with the ability to build alignment and drive adoption of strategic initiatives without direct authority
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to distill complex architecture choices into clear messages that senior leaders can act on, and to be credible with engineering, product, business, and executive audiences
- Hybrid: This role follows a hybrid model, requiring in-office presence (1-day per week) at your Bain home office
U.S. compensation information Compensation for this role includes base salary, annual discretionary performance bonus, 401(k) plan with an annual employer contribution based on years of service and Bain's best in class benefits package (details listed below).
Some local governments in the United States require a good-faith, reasonable salary range to be included in job postings for open roles.
The estimated annualized compensation for this role is as follows:
In the United States, the good-faith, reasonable annualized full-time salary range for this role is between $225,750 and $282,250 ; placement within these ranges will vary based on several factors including, but not limited to experience, education, licensure/certifications, training and skill level
- Annual discretionary performance bonus
- This role may also be eligible for other elements of discretionary compensation
- 4.5% 401(k) company contribution, which increases after 3 years of service and is 100% vested upon start date
Bain & Company's comprehensive benefits and wellness program is designed to help employees achieve personal independence, protection and stability in the areas most important to you and your family.
- Bain pays 100% individual employee premiums for medical, dental and vision programs, offering one of the most comprehensive medical plans for employees without impacting your paycheck
- Generous paid time off, including parental leave, sick leave and paid holidays
- Fully vested 401(k) company contribution
- Paid Life and Long-Term Disability insurance
- Annual fitness reimbursements
